Skies, fairways clear; Pros move in

Firm, fair and fast fairways and greens are what professional golfers have come to expect at TPC Sawgrass, but nearly a dozen of inches of rain over the past several days almost made that impossible.

"We had almost 11 inches of rain. We can get it off the course, it's just that we have no place to put it," said Rapp, executive director of The Players. "Thankfully our friends at JEA came to our rescue."

Rapp says the JEA pumped the rain water into the Intracoastal, leaving some trouble spots still wet, and in need of repair.

”We have a lot of heavy equipment, traveling over grass, and its fine when it's dry. But when it's not, it turns into a sloppy mess, we've had problems in the spectator areas with standing water, we've been working hard to getting rid of all that."

Course officials say the greens and fairways are just a little bit softer because of all of the rain, but they say by Thursday, the professionals won't even notice a thing.

Last year 41,000 people attended The Players and expect 45,000 golf fans will flock to Sawgrass this year. And the course is what everyone will be looking at along, with the players -- both of them on an international stage.

"We want it to look great, and that's why we are not open today," Rupp said.

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